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Party mit Escort Munich
In the event the Mark 1 Capri was launched at the Brussels Motor Show while using the slogan 'The Car People always Promised Yourself' it became an instant success with the baby boomer generation.

Just a year of production, almost one in four of all cars that Ford sold in Europe, was some sort of Capri.

Within 1970 nearly 250, 000 Capris were sold. The car was customized at Liverpool and Dagenham in the uk and at Ford's facilities in Ghenk in Belgium and Cologne in Germany. By 1973 the millionth Capri a great RS 2600 rolled heli-copter flight production line at Ford's Halewood shrub in Liverpool.

The early success in Europe produced Ford introducing the car into the US and Australian markets in 1970 and certain the production of two further models, the Recognise 2 and Mark 3 Capris.

The Capri Recognise 1 was a sporty looking fastback which has a long bonnet, wide cracking open two doors, low roofline often in black vinyl, round side windows, fake air intakes and alloy wheels and also the distinctive hockey stick molded indent that ran along the side of the vehicle. Inside the car was designed with plastic and fake wood that's to become synonymous with cars with the 1970s. Inside the car was roomy which has a rear bench seat and as per an advert by Ford when 'We were going to call the new Capri a 2+2 but there's excessive room in the back'.

The Capri came in numerous engine configurations with many of the components and parts borrowed directly in the Ford Escort which had launched a couple of years earlier. This meant the car had the usual top mounted engine and backside wheel drive.

The most used Capri sold in england was the 1600cc version with sometimes a L, GL or XL toned deciding its look and interior design. With a manual gearbox your car would struggle to reach 100 mph but the buying public were not that concerned with performance in 1969, they were more interested in value for money style and price. The base 1300cc model for any petrol frugant or timid driver started only?? 890 on the route. The zippy two litre version was sold to get a meer?? 1088. The range of Capris on offer has been so large that no dealer could stock each and every variety. Incredibly the vehicle featured front disk brakes together with rack and pinion guiding as standard, but in early models you'd to request seatbelts since extras!

In it's base form the 1300 Capri had been a sluggish drive having its pushrod engine, but the 1600 crossflow Kent engine using its Pinto derived overhead camshaft cylinder head gave the car a lively performance. The 2000 was a different machine again with some sort of V4 Essex Ford algorithm.

The Ford Capri's handling could best be referred to as awkward and like the Mustang involved large amounts of oversteer. In the dry your vehicle was maneuverable and fun to drive, but when it rained it could actually punish the unaccustomed driver with very poor rear wheel traction and then a slippery drive.

This became much more apparent with the large engined later versions like the 3000 GT and this mark 3 2. 8i, which quickly became rated in the high insurance groups.